


Taking a Tumble

by cosmicoyote



Series: Marichat May 2020 One-Shots [8]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Marichat May 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24217453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicoyote/pseuds/cosmicoyote
Summary: Prompt Eight: Don't Tell Me What to DoThe miraculous gives one enhanced abilities, but there are some who take advantage of their new powers and end up taking a painful tumble.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Marichat May 2020 One-Shots [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1728427
Comments: 2
Kudos: 47





	Taking a Tumble

"You are the most reckless-" SMACK!

"stubborn-" SMACK!

"hardheaded-" SMACK!

"crazy-" SMACK! "-alley cat in all of Paris!" Marinette shrieked, punctuating each word with a blow from her pillow. She could not even begin to describe how furious she was. 

How scared she had been.

Chat Noir had the decency to look ashamed. His cat ears were droopy and his blonde hair, which was normally a mess anyway, was more tousled than usual from her pillow attack. 

He had barely tried to fend off her blows. They didn't hurt or anything, but he felt he at least deserved the scolding after the stunt he pulled.

Maybe if she looked more angry, he would try and snap back at her, but he had seen the terror in her eyes when she thought he was badly hurt. She truly cared about him, and she would be there when he needed her.

This time, though, he was being stupid and got himself hurt out of pure spite and ignorance.

"What were you trying to prove, anyway?" Marinette asked him as she dug around in her first aid kit and cleaned the gash on his temple.

Chat Noir winced from the contact with the hydrogen peroxide but allowed her to clean his face. He had cuts on his jaw and neck, too, which she tended to. Her hands were gentle as she applied a butterfly bandage to the wound on his temple which was the deepest. He had struck it on the side of a dumpster as he toppled from a five story building.

He found himself absently leaning into her touch as she smoothed his bandage down. Her touch brought warmth and comfort to his troubled mind, and he couldn't put into words how much her kindness meant to him. When she pulled her hand away, he felt her warmth leave with it.

He was so busy missing her touch, he forgot she had asked him a question. He cleared his throat and pulled his knees up to his chest. His cheeks heated when he reached the realization that he did not have an answer for her - not a good one, anyway. The truth was he had been showing off and being reckless. Had he not been in his superhero guise, he would have been very badly injured.

Well, he thought darkly, had he been in his civilian state, he would not have been climbing on buildings and jumping across roofs in an attempt to impress Marinette...

_____________________

They had bumped into each other in the street while she was on her way home from Alya's and he starting his evening patrol. He had spotted her, flirted a little as his custom, then began doing acrobatics... He had done back flips and springs while also doing handstands on rooftops and leaping from lamppost to lamppost.

Chat had been having fun, and Marinette seemed highly amused... until he was toeing the edge of a particularly tall section of buildings and making her nervous. He was looking less like an agile cat and more like a careless young kitten getting too big for his claws.

"Chat, get down from there!" Marinette called, finally stopping and trying to get it through his head he was being careless now. "You could get hurt!"

"Nah, I'm good," he called back, now balancing on his baton and swinging on it like a suave, fantasy pirate captain on his ship. His agility and grace had been something she had always admired and even envied because she was the total opposite in her movements. She tripped over air for goodness sake.

"Chat, this isn't funny or silly anymore. You're three stories higher than before and dancing along the edge! You could fall!" She scowled when he just laughed and raced along on all fours like the stubborn kitty cat that he was.

"Look, Princess! I'm _purr-_ fectly balanced." He landed at a crouch then stood on his hands. Then the sly cat leaned his weight to the side and balanced himself on one hand. His belt tail flicked happily. Even from her vantage point in the street down below, she could tell he was grinning cheekily.

That mangy stray was going to get a piece of her mind the moment he was back on the ground.

Getting frustrated, Marinette stomped her foot and balled her fists. "Chat Noir!" she called up, unable to three name him because she had no idea what his real name was, but she put enough forcefulness behind his superhero name the way her mother did when she was in deep trouble. "Get your feline butt down here right now before I come up there and-"

Chat frowned down at her and swayed a little. She tensed, stopping mid-sentence as he struggled a little to stay balanced.

After a few tense seconds, Marinette groaned loudly. "CHAT!"

"Don't tell me what to do," Chat had called down at her, apparently starting to get annoyed with her, too. He grumbled something she didn't catch the entirety of, but she definitely heard, "Everyone else always is..."

Marinette pinched the bridge of her nose. He really was infuriating.

She had turned on her heel to stomp away and leave the daredevil kitty to his antics when she heard him suddenly let out a yelp. She whipped around in time to see him toppling off the edge of the roof and down towards the alleyway below.

"CHAT NOIR!"

_____________________________

Marinette shook her head as she put her hand over his, still clutching his knees to his chest. "You were being dumb, but I'm just glad you're okay, Chaton."

He smiled reluctantly and turned his hand over to hold hers.

She gave his hand a squeeze then pulled back. "How about some tea before you go home?"

He nodded then hugged his knees again, resting his chin on top. He really was lucky to have Marinette as a friend. She was sweet, but she also had a temper when she was pushed. He liked that about her because tough love was something he believed people needed sometimes. His father gave him that often - maybe a little too often, but it wasn't as if he could do anything about it.

When Chat closed his eyes, he could picture the worry in her deep blue eyes as she knelt over him after he had landed in the alley on top of discarded furniture and crates. His temple had even struck a dumpster on his way down resulting in the gash he now needed to keep an eye on. His hairline hid most of it luckily.

Marinette had given him quite the scolding when he pulled himself from the pile of garbage. Then he had swayed, and she caught him and-

Chat hugged himself and shivered. He had thought for a moment that Ladybug had come for him to pull his stupid hide off the ground. In fact, he was pretty sure he mumbled his partner's name, but his head had been hurting too much for him to be positive.

Even though she was annoyed at him, and he had made a mistake, Marinette had been there for him and took him back to her house to get cleaned up. His suit had prevented him from breaking bones, but his face would be scratched up for a few days. His back was feeling sore, too, but he could walk. He knew he was lucky that's all he had to deal with.

Marinette returned with tea and sat beside him. He sipped his drink more to placate her than because he actually wanted the tea.

Chat was quiet, and it worried Marinette. He was usually a chatter box, but he was subdued and staring at his tea as if thinking about a million things at once.

"Chaton, are you still in pain?" Marinette asked tenderly. She had had him take some pain killers before she cleaned him up, and they worked for the most part. A prickling at the corners of his eyes had him rubbing at them hastily, but Marinette caught him.

"Hey, hey..." Marinette's hand slid over his cheek to the back of his head to rub behind his cat ears. Her touch centered him like before and he leaned into her. He swallowed the lump in his throat. "Do you need ice or-?"

"No... just... just a hug or-"

Marinette pulled him closer and rubbed his back. He threw his arms around her, and he fought the whine of misery threatening to tear from his throat. His father would burst a blood vessel if he knew he had put an imperfection on himself. He would need to heal and rely on concealer for a while. He was definitely going to get into major trouble for his scratches, but he couldn't worry about that right now.

It still hurt to know that all his father would care about was his temporarily ruined face and not his own son's pain.

Marinette put their tea aside and held him. She murmured softly into his ear as she rubbed his back, and a faint spark of familiarity formed. He hadn't been hugged like this since... since his mother. Marinette made him feel cared for and cherished - things he hadn't felt in a long time.

"I'll always be here for you, Chaton," Marinette murmured. "I promise."

There was no way she could know anything about his life personally with her loving parents always having her back and her friends who loyally stood by her side. It didn't matter because she was supporting him. Without saying a word, Marinette knew he needed to be held and assured since nobody else in his life was going to do that.

"I can ask my parents if you can stay over and watch movies with me. We can have a sleepover!"

His wounded heart flopped over like a puppy wanting attention. He smiled and blinked as he pulled back to look down at her. He would need to arrange a few things first, but he was sure he could find a way to duck Gabriel and his staff for the night.

He felt lightheaded and not from his injury - from the happiness and relief that he would get to stay inside Marinette's warm and welcoming home instead of his cold, empty one.

"That sounds _paw-_ some, Princess," he told her, his smile genuine and... hopeful.

**Author's Note:**

> A touch of angst mixed with some heavy fluff.
> 
> Thank you all for your support and lovely comments! I love reading them! (:


End file.
